Heinrich Heine’s Die Bäder von Lucca (The Baths of Lucca) is part of his travel writing collection Reisebilder (Travel Pictures), published in 1830. Bagni di Lucca is a historic spa town in Tuscany, located north of Lucca. The town flourished in the nineteenth century as a fashionable health resort, frequented by Napoleon’s court, British aristocrats like Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and musicians including Niccolò Paganini and Giacomo Puccini. One anecdote claims that Europe’s first casino was established there, with roulette being played as early as 1837 in Ponte a Serraglio.

Heine’s text uses his characteristic irony to deliver biting anecdotes reflecting on the spirit of the times and the pseudo-intellectual climate of early restoration-era Germany.

We see Philipp’s style developing here, with distinctly Bayrosian influences, especially in the last illustration.

The Philipp-illustrated Die Bäder von Lucca was published by Verlag von Richard Weissbach, Heidelberg.